New perspectives on health disparities in breast cance...(frican-American women 31.6 percent of A...),Health

If early breast cancer is more aggressive in African-American women, they may benefit from earlier detection than is previously obtained by yearly screening mammograms, Nichols said. These results should offer hope to the healthcare community, because improved, more vigilant, screening may offer a simple way to improve outcomes for African-American women with early breast cancer.

Physician perspectives on surgical treatment disparities among Asian women with early stage breast cancer, Abstract no. A-54:

According to the oncologists who treat them, Asian women with early stage breast cancer are influenced by cultural factors when they decide to choose mastectomy over breast-conserving lumpectomy, even though a lumpectomy might offer a better quality of life, say researchers at the Northern California Cancer Center (NCCC), located in Fremont, California.

An Asian patients attitude that the breast doesnt need to be preserved − primarily because of the cultures reduced emphasis on the breast and breast appearance − is an important consideration that leads many Asian women to choose a mastectomy, said a majority of physicians who participated in the investigators survey.

Other reasons cited by physicians are that Asian women may choose a mastectomy because breast size in this population is smaller to begin with, so there is less breast to preserve, as well as factors such as age and unwillingness to travel for chemotherapy and radiation treatments which often are necessary following a lumpectomy.

Reasons for why Asian women choose mastectomy are important, say the NCCC team, because in order for a breast cancer patient to make the best clinical decision, she must be thoroughly educated on the benefits of each procedure. For patients with early stage breast can
'/>"/>